First Build, Need a Review for Setup

[Nightops]

Hi all. Im new to the forums and a beginner at computer building. This is my first build and im looking on building a high PC gaming machine. As of right now I have researched quite a bit on hardware. I believe I have a good setup. I had a friend who's done some building help me piece this one together. I figured it's always good to have another opinion, so that's why I'm here. So here goes:


- APEVIA MX-PLEASURE-BK Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case w/ 2x80 mm & 2x120 mm fans ATX 500W dual fan w/automatic fan speed control. Connector 20 + 4 pin Power Supply
- ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard
- AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ Windsor 2.6GHz Socket AM2 Processor Model ADA5200CSBOX
- VIGOR GAMING CLT-M2A 92mm Thermal Electric CPU Cooler (Combo with CPU)
- Kingston HyperX 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model KHX6400D2LLK2/2G
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3500630A 500GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive - OEM
- ATI Radeon X1950 CrossFire Edition 512MB GDDR4 PCI Express x16 HDCP CrossFire Video Card
- Creative SOUND BLASTER X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card
- LITE-ON 20X DVD±R Burner with 12X DVD-RAM write and LightScribe Technology


I also need to figure out what I want for OS. I havent decited whether 64 Vista, or XP would be better for gaming. I've read some reviews, one in particular from PC MAG saying that vista isn't good for a heavy gaming machine...Any suggestions?

Constructive Criticism Welcome.

[glc]

Are you wedded to AMD? We are recommending Core 2 Duos right now, your friend may be a bit behind in his information.

The power supply in that case is not good quality. Why are you buying a SLI board and an ATI video card? Why an IDE hard drive - you should be looking at SATA. We recommend building with onboard sound and adding a sound card later if the onboard doesn't work to your satisfaction. Build it with XP, if you buy XP now it should come with a Vista upgrade coupon. We prefer Corsair ram. Make sure the DVD burner is a retail box, OEM doesn't come with software. Retail box processors come with a heatsink/fan, you don't need an aftermarket unit.